Interview

William Gibson, famous for having coined the term 'cyberspace' in 1982, and writing about virtual reality before it existed, discusses his work, his influences and whether he considers himself a writer of science fiction.

You are famous for having coined the term "cyberspace" in 1982, how did you hit on it and did you think it would stick like it has?
It didn't seem momentous at the time. I wrote out a list. The only two I remember were "dataspace" and "infospace" and neither of those was going anywhere. Then I hit on "cyberspace", and I thought, "Ooooh, cyberspace. That sounds like something people might actually say."

You seem to have stopped using the word in your two latest novels, Idoru and Virtual Light, why is that?
There's something funny going on with the prefix "cyber-". It's become not fashionable. Somebody told me recently that the proprietors of the Cybercafe have taken cybercoffee off the menu and I can understand exactly why.

While we're discussing that particular prefix, what about "cyberpunk? You've been hailed as the king of cyberpunk since your first novel, Neuromancer. Where did that term come from and what does it mean to you?
I can never remember who coined the term "cyberpunk", but it was the title of a short story which wasn't itself cyberpunk and had nothing to do with what was subsequently called cyberpunk. It's something to do with bohemia and computers ...... it's the ...